State of Grace
by xmjcx
Summary: Bethyl AU. "Beth had a feeling that this thing that had been building between them before she had been ripped away from under his grasp was definitely building between them again. And Beth was more than sure that she didn't want it to stop." Beth finds her way to Alexandria where she is reuinted with her family, but it takes her a little while to settle herself in. Rated M.
1. Chapter 1

**I posted this chapter to this story a few days ago but I wasn't that happy with it and I've had this waiting to be posted since yesterday morning but FF has been down so I've not been able to. Sorry if it's all a little bit confusing, but I wanted to re-post it and this is probably around one/two thousand words longer than the first one I wrote and I also changed a few things (mostly minor, but changed nonetheless).**

 **This story will also more than likely be longer than I first thought that it would be.**

* * *

Life inside of the walls of the Alexandria Safe Zone was absolutely nothing like Beth had ever imagined that it would be; not even in any of her wildest dreams - well, none of her recent ones, at least. Even when her whole family had first stumbled upon the prison and then she had decided in both her heart and her head that they could most definitely make that place a home, Beth had never imagined that it would be anything like this.

And she also wasn't all that sure about whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The way that their lives had been for such a long time now made all of this _normality_ incredibly hard for Beth to accept with open arms. Perhaps if her family would have found this place at the beginning of the outbreak and maybe if she had never known anything other than this life, then she would feel better here; feel _safer_ here, but there was nothing that Beth could do to change that now.

 _You can't change the past._

The young woman found that even after spending almost one week living inside of the walls of the Alexandria Safe Zone and living inside of a house with her sister and her brother in law that she still could not fully allow her body to relax.

Because living this sort of life was almost _difficult_ in the strangest sort of way. Not having to constantly be on the move, not having to always look over your shoulder (and not only being afraifd of the dead, but also - if not more so from - the living, too) and never knowing when you would eat your next meal or where you would sleep that night... They were all factors of life that Beth had come to accept by now, things that were almost _normal_ to her at this point.

All of those things were factors of life that Beth had almost come to expect over time, and in a way - a strange way, of course, but a way nonetheless - Beth thought that it was even somewhat easier to accept that sort of life than the one that the people of Alexandria were living.

Apparantly, it had not taken her older sister anywhere near as long as it was taking Beth to settle herself into this new life at the Safe Zone. The first time that Beth had mentioned anything at all about the difficulties that she was finding in accepting the life that they were all living here, Maggie had scrunched up her face and had shaken her head from side to side and told her younger sister that _no,_ she didn't really understand what it was that Beth was currently feeling.

Naturally, it had been frustrating to not have the one person who was left on this earth who shared her blood understand how she felt in that moment and in that situation, but it was... it was _okay._ The two women were very, very different - both in their mindsets and in their ways - and Beth had known that for a long time now; had known that way before the outbreak started, had known that since way before she could even really recollect anything from before.

Besides, the young blonde wasn't even sure whether or not she even expected Maggie to understand anything that she felt anymore.

Resentment and bitterness were emotions that Beth tried her best to fight, especially when they were bubbling up inside of her at an alarming rate and more specifically directed at her sister, but sometimes it was impossible to not feel something akin to anger towards Maggie.

The signs were something that Maggie had chosen not to bring up with her and for that reason, Beth chose not to bring them up, either. She supposed that Maggie probably assumed that there wasn't really much of a chance that Beth had even seen them and for that reason it seemed as though they would never be discussed. Not wanting to over think any of it, Beth supposed that talking about it all probably wouldn't do much good for her now, anyway.

 _You can't change the past._ She could apologise and explain all that she wanted, but it would never change anything.

It would never change the fact that Beth had seen those signs and although the young woman would very much like to un-see what it was that her older sibling had written on them (or more so what she _hadn't_ written on them), there was absolutely no way possible that those images could be erased from her mind anytime soon.

Sometimes, when Beth was talking with Maggie or even just looking in her general direction, she would close her eyes - just for the tiniest split of a second whilst she blinked - and all that she could see behind her lids was Glenn's name written in bright red with instructions to go to Terminus and then her own name to be absolutely nowhere to be found.

Maybe it was a possibility that when she had opened her mouth and accused Daryl of considering her to be _just another dead girl,_ it had actually been Beth who had been wrong all along. In all fairness, Daryl Dixon had never given up on her the way in which her sister clearly had. The surly man may not have always necessarily been kind towards her or sympathetic at all about the situation that she had found herself in, but something had changed inside of him during their time together; something that had changed his general behaviour towards _her._

Maybe it had even changed his feelings towards her, too.

But entertaining those types of thoughts was dangerous.

It had been Rick Grimes who had came and found her quite shortly after she had arrived in the walls of Alexandria, and the head of her family informed her of a great deal when it came to Daryl Dixon. Rick wasted no time in telling her all about the way in which the older man had behaved whilst she had been missing from the group; the way in which Daryl had gone and blamed himself for her kidnapping and then for her death, and the way that he had acted once she had been shot in the head right in front of him.

The only thing that Beth had known was that someone had shot Dawn dead almost immediately after Dawn had shot her. It was one of the cops at the hospital who had informed her of it and they hadn't really known any of the names of the people in her family, so they had been at a loss to point her in the right direction for who was responsible for Dawn's death.

In her heart, Beth had known it was Daryl. Had _hoped_ that it was Daryl, even if that was slightly sick or twisted or just plain wrong - she didn't care. Beth was relieved that Dawn was dead and she was even more relieved to hear that it had been Daryl who had ended her life.

With Rick's words came images that Beth could have never imagined were even possible when it came to Daryl, and those images flooded her imagination constantly. Although Beth couldn't quite picture the older man being _lost_ since her 'death' the way that Rick had described him as being, Beth could hardly picture Rick Grimes telling her a lie, either.

It wasn't as though Daryl had actually shown her much affection or given her any attention since her arrival to Alexandria, though. The older man had barely said two words to her since she had turned up at the gates of the Safe Zone, although he _had_ approached her that first day. His movements had been cautious at first, but then more confident and definitely more certain, and he had rushed towards her all at once and wrapped his strong arms tight around her to the point where she felt as though she couldn't breathe anymore.

Beth didn't mind, though.

It was nothing out of the ordinary for a greeting; after all, every single one of her family had done the same - she had been shot in the head directly in front of them, after all - but there was just something... something different about Daryl holding her so tightly to him.

Something decidedly _better._

It had been strange for her to see the older man looking directly at her in such _awe,_ but Beth thought to herself that if she believed that he was dead only for him to show up a couple of months later then she would be equally just as confused and as overwhelmed as he was in that moment, too.

In the end, it had been Morgan Jones who had found her in the woods, though, not Daryl - even though she had always hoped that if anyone was going to find her, then it would be him. Somehow, the man had managed to stumble across her as she wandered through the woods close by the Safe Zone, no real destination in mind. The girl had been completely alone as she searched through the woods, her light blue eyes wide and her stomach rumbling and her hair all untamed and wild as she stared straight over at the unfamiliar figure with only a hunting knife clutched tightly in her hand for protection.

The blonde was anything but sure of what had happened to her after the gunshot had been fired in the hallway of the hospital. Vague recollections of slurred words and blurry images of bright lights and unfocused faces plagued her mind, but that was all that she had of that.

And then after the hospital had been overran by walkers and effectively destroyed, Beth had managed to escape on her own, without the help of anyone else. Nobody that she had known there seemed to have managed to get out as well, but even if they had, Beth didn't care at all. This wasn't like the prison; those people weren't her family, they weren't even her _friends,_ and although she didn't necessarily wish any ill upon them she also didn't really care whether they managed to get out or not.

She just couldn't wait to escape that place.

Ever since then, Beth had been on the run; hunting for any members of her family now that she knew that they were alive, searching for any signs at all that they may have left behind. Although Beth had absolutely no idea where it was that any of them could have possibly gone, she looked for clues everywhere that she possibly could.

 _The signs are all there. Just gotta read them._

It had been hard work for her when she had fled the prison with only Daryl Dixon for company, but it was even harder when she had been by herself. Without the gruff redneck there to guide her and to look out for her and help keep her safe, it had been even more of a challenge than she could have ever imagined before. There had even been several occasions where Beth had been overwhelmed with a sense of sadness and defeat and in those moments, she had been so sure that she would never make it even one more day, would never make it to her family.

But she had managed to push through that, though. Beth had managed to push through all of it - all of the negative thoughts and the deflated emotions - and she had somehow stumbled across Morgan along the way.

Not that the two of them knew each other, of course. And maybe it had been the complete and utter desperation that she had felt in that moment and the loneliness that had consumed her ever since the hospital had fallen, but Morgan had seemed like someone that she could trust.

The girl had been both sleep deprived and starving when Morgan had found her and then convinced her to accompany him to the Safe Zone. The unfamiliar man had spoken to her about the houses that they had there; real life houses with solar panels and running water and even _chocolate_ , and he had encouraged her to at least come by and have at least one nights worth of sleep in the end, even if she chose not to stick around.

Little did either of them know who it was that was living there in the Safe Zone and that Beth would soon be reunited with her family.

It was something that she had wanted for such a long time now, something that had been in her heart and in her mind this whole time, and yet it had always felt as though it was out of her grasp, something that was unachievable. Her family could have been anywhere in America, anywhere in the whole _world_ , really, although Beth refused to even consider the idea of them not being alive.

Hope had burned inside of her chest ever single day, but actually finding them all again... It was something that a small part of her had almost come to accept would never happen.

But Beth was so glad that that small part of her had been wrong.

* * *

It had been drilled into Beth Greene quite early on in her arrival to Alexandria that every single person who lived inside of the walls of the Safe Zone was given a job to do by Deanna, the woman who basically ran the whole Safe Zone, and everyone who lived there also had to stick to the job that they were given and make sure that they did them well.

According to her sister, Deanna was a nice enough woman (although Maggie probably _would_ tell her that) who tried her best to make sure that everyone was assigned a role that best suited them; ensuring that the job that they were given was always something that they were interested in and could also relate to, but at the same time something that they would be able to excel at as well.

In her heart, Beth had always known that her calling - her real talent in life - was working with children. At the prison, she had basically taken over the role of caring for all of the young ones, not just Judith, and before the dead had started walking the young blonde had been certain that she would go on to do her teacher training.

After almost two weeks of living in the Safe Zone, Deanna had called her in to visit her for "a chat" so that the two women could discuss what it was that Beth would be doing and since the older woman had assured Beth on more than one occasion that she too thought that Beth would be best suited to working with children, she had been certain that she would be assigned a job working in Alexandria's makeshift school.

Unfortunately though, it just so happened that according to Deanna the school was actually filled with women who had experience working with children and teaching and it seemed that she would not be needed there.

The news nearly broke her heart, and Beth didn't miss the way that Deanna's eyes trailed over the scars on her face as she spoke to her, the smile on the older woman's face appearing to be anything but genuine.

After learning about Beth's experience at the hospital at Grady and all of the useful information that she would have picked up over time whilst working with her daddy and even just observing him whilst he treated both animals and humans, Deanna informed Beth the she personally thought that making her a nurse in Alexandria would be the best thing to do. It had been a couple of weeks now since the main surgeon had been killed - a woman called Jessie (who seemed to be getting closer and closer to none other than Rick Grimes); it had been her husband - so Alexandria needed all of the help that it could possibly get when it came to the medical side of things.

Apparantly, Beth Greene was the answer to all of Deanna's silent prayers.

After she left Deanna's little office, Beth thought that being a nurse in Alexandria wasn't the worst job in the whole world. In all fairness, she would probably enjoy it, especially since she had always liked watching her daddy as he worked and she enjoyed working and talking with people, too. Even if there wasn't any room for her at the school, Beth thought that maybe having this role would help to make her feel as though she actually had a purpose around here.  
Maybe it would help her feel as though she was really _living_ instead of just surviving, too.

Still, no matter how many ways Beth tried to see the positive in this situation, she still had absolutely no other choice but to walk past the makeshift school each day on her way over to the clinic where she would be working. And every time that she heard the sound of the children laughing loudly and the teachers who worked there laughing along with them too, Beth couldn't help but to be overcome with a certain sort of sadness.

The scars on her face stung even more than usual each time that she walked by, and although Deanna had never voiced her opinion on the matter, Beth thought that deep down she knew why it was that the older woman didn't want her working with the children there - especially not the young ones.

* * *

Although Beth knew that she would probably never be able to be sure about how on earth it had ever managed to reach Daryl Dixon's ears that she hadn't been able to be assigned a job working with the children at the school, Beth supposed that the most likely culprit for spilling the beans was her brother in law, Glenn Rhee.

Of course, Maggie was partially to blame too because she was the one who worked alongside Deanna and she was also the one who would have told her husband the news in the first place despite the fact that Maggie also knew about Glenn's incapability to keep something a secret, especially from his family.

Why on earth it was that Glenn had felt it necessary to come to Daryl about the matter, Beth would probably never know, but either way it was apparant that he had done anyway and there was nothing that she could do about it now.

The older man did not seem at all happy with Deanna's decision to keep Beth away from working at the school and instead at the clinic. It hadn't really crossed Beth's mind to tell anyone about where she was working now since she knew that word would probably get out to her family quite easily, but if there was anyone she would have told, it was Daryl.

That was before it felt like he had been completely avoiding her since her arrival to Alexandria, though.

So instead of telling him - or any of the others, for that matter - anything about her new role, she kept it quiet.

When Beth returned to the house (she refused to call it _her_ house, or even _home_ , because it just didn't feel right) after her third shift of working at the clinic, she had expected it to be empty whilst both her sister and brother in law went round to the house that Carol lived in for something to eat. Beth too had been invited to the dinner, but she had refused the invitation, giving headaches and tiredness as her excuse for not joining in on the evening.

Really, she just wanted some time to herself. Some time to _breathe_. It was more than amazing to be reunited with all of her family, but there had been so long when it had just been Beth on her own and she was more than used to her own company by now. She enjoyed it, in fact, and was more than happy to sit out on this one.

As she absentmindedly strolled through the house and into the kitchen, humming a tune to herself, Beth shrieked and almost dropped the bag that she had been carrying that was filled with clinical books to the ground at the sight of the broad figure resting casually against the kitchen island.

Daryl Dixon had barely said anything at all to her since she had arrived back in Alexandria, but as he stared at her now with his deep blue eyes blazing and his bare muscular arms crossed over his chest, Beth thought that it was honestly possible that she could see everything that it was that Daryl had been feeling and that he hadn't told her over these last fourteen days.

Maybe if Rick wouldn't have told her, Beth would have been able to read him, anyway. The two of them had developed a bond over their time together - the time back when it was just the two of them, alone, not knowing whether anyone else from their family had escaped the fall of the prison - and Beth was relieved to know that she could still read Daryl pretty well.

 _Even after all of this time._

Not missing a beat and not looking phased by how he had frightened her, Daryl pushed himelf up from where he had been leaning against the island and let out a sound that Beth could only describe as a huff as he straightened himself up. Those deep blue eyes that Beth found herself staring into for probably longer than necessary slowly left her own so that they could trail down her body, taking in her appearance inch by inch.

She was wearing an old nurses uniform (not scrubs, thankfully) - just a white button-up with a pair of dark pants and a lanyard around her neck that read 'nurse' over and over again. As he took in her appearance, Beth got the urge to self-consciously look down at herself and see what it was that Daryl seemed so taken by, but she fought it. Instead, the blonde held her head high in place and continued to stare at him, waiting for his eyes to meet with hers once again.

His voice was hoarse and somehow even rougher than usual when he opened his mouth and finally spoke to her. "You okay?" he asked, his eyes locking back onto hers once more in a way that had Beth wanting to shiver.

There was just something so _quiet_ about Daryl and his whole demeanor that had the younger woman thinking that this very well could be the first time that he had interacted with anyone all day.

Part of her wanted to tell him everything. Her heart thumped in her chest excitedly, waiting for her to expose all of her thoughts and her feelings to the older man and confide in him about everything that she had been struggling with over these last two weeks - hell, over these last few _months_ , in fact.

But he had been avoiding her. _Ignoring_ her.

So Beth just swallowed down the desire to expose everything to him and instead just nodded her head once, refusing to open her mouth out of fear that she wouldn't be able to keep her tongue in check.

He was still for a moment, but then he was shaking his head from side to side so that his too-long hair shook around a little bit as he let out an impatient sigh. Those deep blue eyes continued to stare over at her in a way that made it more than evident that the older man most definitely did not believe her whatsoever.

"That ain't true," Daryl commented, and Beth fought the urge to groan.

It wasn't as though she wanted to lie to Daryl about anything; it was just that it had been difficult confiding in him when she couldn't help but feel _hurt_ that he had so easily left her alone over the past two weeks. The blonde was still struggling to come to terms with her own feelings for the older man - before, when she had been alone, she had been more than sure of them, more than confident about how things would pan out and how it would be when they were reunited.

This was nothing like any of her daydreams or her hopes, though.

This was everything that she had never even considered.

"It is," Beth told him, jutting out her chin and crossing her arms over her chest almost defiantly.

Defending herself from everyone - even Daryl Dixon - was just a natural reaction at this point.

It was only when he ended up standing directly in front of her - much, much closer than she had expected for him to be - that Beth realised that Daryl had even taken any steps towards her. The blonde resisted the urge to gulp down nervously, knowing full well that the older man would most definitely notice it and would effectively know the way in which his close proximity effected her.

It wasn't as though Beth was scared of Daryl by now; after all, despite the gruff and rough and hard exterior that he put on, she had learned during their time at the funeral home about just how _sweet_ he could be. But there was still something intimidating about his auroa when he wanted there to be, and right now it seemed as though he _wanted_ for her to feel anxious, to feel nervous.

And then he was breaking her out of her thoughts once again when he moved his hand to cup her cheek, his thumb moving so that it could slowly trace over the scar that was on her cheek. His eyes never left hers as he carressed her with a tenderness that Beth wasn't even surprised that he possessed.

The moment was so intense and the action was so unexpected and surprisingly affectionate that Beth's breath hitched in her throat the second that his thumb came into contact with the rough line that permanantly marked her cheek, and knowing that Daryl could read her like a book - _even after all this time_ \- had Beth feeling all sorts of vulnearbly and exposed in both the best and worst ways that were humanly possible.

"You don't gotta lie to me," Daryl murmured, and his voice was lower than she had ever heard it as his eyes flickered down to her lips.

For a moment, Beth's heart skipped a beat in her chest at just the thought of Daryl Dixon pushing his mouth against hers. It was a thought that had crossed her mind several times before; whilst she had been at the funeral home and then the hospital and mostly when she had been out on her own. It was an image that most certainly wasn't foreign to her, and knowing that all she would have to do was reach up on her toes and their mouths would be connected...

The feel of Daryl brushing past her snapped the blonde back into reality, and then the sound of the front door closing softly behind him had Beth letting out a disappointed sigh. She continued to stand in the same spot staring straight ahead of herself for a good few seconds after he had left before one of her hands hesitantly reached up to her face, her fingers tentatively moving over the scar on her cheek the same way in which Daryl's had done just moment before.  
It felt a lot better when Daryl was the one who was doing it, though.

The girl couldn't imagine a time when the marks on her face wouldn't bother her or make her feel somewhat insecure compared to the other women here, but right now - right in this moment, in this second - they didn't seem _all_ that bad.

Out of everyone in this Safe Zone, the blonde knew that Daryl would always be the one person who could really understand the way in which she felt about them - the _pain_ that she felt about them - and whether he currently wanted to really talk to her or not, Beth had a feeling that this thing that had been building between them before she had been ripped away from under his grasp was definitely building between them again.

And Beth was more than sure that she didn't want it to stop.


	2. Chapter 2

Working in the small makeshift clinic that Alexandria housed wasn't all that bad in the end, really. Of course it might not have ever been the job that Beth had dreamed of when she had been a little girl, but it was something, and being a nurse was most definitely a role that came almost _naturally_ to her. Sometimes, Beth couldn't help herself but to wonder whether this had been her calling all along, whether this role had been one that God or the universe had paved out for her before she was even born.

It sounded stupid and ridiculous and boarderline crazy, that she knew; and it was most definitely an idea that she would certainly not voice to anyone else who was tucked inside of the tall walls of the Alexandria Safe Zone. But the idea still made sense in her mind because _we've all got jobs to do_ and she had just been os young and innocent when the outbreak had initially started, not having a clue where it was that she was going to go in this new world or whether she would even survive in it longer than one week.

In the strangest possible way, it seemed to be almost _right_ that Beth should be doing something like this. Even now, even after everything at the hospital; after all of the things that she had seen and done, after the scrubs and the lollipops and the physical and mental abuse. Even now, even after the world had been destroyed and even when everything had drastically been turned upside down...

In Beth's mind, it all just seemed to - barely, but still - make sense.

The young blonde debated internally over whether that was enough.

* * *

Back at the prison, Beth had tried her best to keep track of the days and the dates in order to keep some sort of resemblance of the time that was passing and also so that everyone who lived there could feel almost _normal_ once again. In her mind, Beth saw it as that if they could keep track of the days and the time then perhaps they could also celebrate occasions such as Christmas and birthdays and anniversary's.

There had most definitely been some people who would have thought that her logic was pathetic and useless and childish and downright idiotic - after all, they _were_ living in the middle of the apocalypse, literally fighting to survive - but to Beth, it was another thing that just seemed to make sense. In her own mind, it made absolutely no sense to just survive; there had to be something that they were living for, a reason to even bother to survive for.

Now though, her attitude had slightly changed.

The blonde had absolutely no idea how long it was that she had been contained in Grady for, but she knew all too well that it had most definitely been more than long enough for her liking.

Once she had escaped, Beth also had no idea how much time had passed or how long she had been on the road for before she came across had most definitely had to have at least been a couple of months for her to be able to move up to where the Safe Zone was located and in all honesty, Beth really had absolutely no idea why she had even gone in the direction that she had or how she had managed to find that place in the end.

Somehow though, it had all just seemed to work out for her.

Living in Alexandria Safe Zone meant that a lot of things from the old world were kept the same, and apparantly the people who lived here seemed to also enjoy the idea of keeping track of dates and times in order to keep things running properly and also to allow some sense of normalcy to fill the space around them. It wasn't as though Beth could really judge any of the people who lived here for it or that she would even want to, but a part of her couldn't help but feel a little bit frustrated towards it all.

It seemed as though now she was standing on the opposite side of the fence that she had been on when she had been living at the prison. Things had been so different then - a time when she had her perfect family, when she had her daddy and her sister and Judith and the children. A time when things were difficult and complicated but somehow simple, too.

Now, things were a lot more difficult and a lot more complicated. Now, there wasn't as much hope swelling in her chest as there had been all that time ago. Instead, Beth found that whilst she wasn't overly negative, she was generally very unsure and definitely not as confident as she had been before. Even though she had a purpose here in Alexandria, playing the role of a nurse didn't feel anywhere near as important or as rewarding as caring for Judith and the other children at the prison had done.

But Judith had a father who was (almost) sane now and she also had Carol and Michonne who had been taking good care of her, too. And the other children from the prison just weren't here anymore, and even if they were here then they still wouldn't need her because they would have the school and they would have their teachers who would more than likely point them in the right direction of a family to take care of them and in that scenario, Beth imagined that she would feel even worse than she did now.

Even so, Beth still cried for those children almost every day.

The loss of them from her life seemed to weigh heavily on her nowadays, more than it ever had done before.

Maybe it was just something about Alexandria Safe Zone that reminded her about everything that she had lost and everything that she wanted back.

* * *

When Beth really thought about it - and goodness, she had definitely over-thought this quite a bit - there really wasn't all that logical of a reason for her to be standing outside of Daryl Dixon's bedroom door at such a ridiculous time of the night. It was before midnight, but definitely still late, and as far as Beth was aware everyone who stayed in the house - including Rick and Michonne and Carol - were fast asleep, or had at least retired to their bedrooms.

Wearing nothing but a pair of light blue cotton pyjama shorts that she kept having to tug down because they had a tendency to creep higher up the tops of her thighs than was really very appropriate and a flimsy white tank top, Beth sucked in a sharp breath of air and closed her eyes tightly for a second or two before she mustered up the courage to raise one of her shaky hands and knock on the white door three times.

The hunter must have already been awake because despite the late hour of the evening (which Beth had fully expected of him because Daryl had a tendency not to sleep very much) it didn't even take ten seconds before the sound of heavy footsteps padding across the floor of the bedroom filled her ears. Beneath her body, the wooden floorboards trembled ever so slightly, a tell-tale sign to the blonde that Daryl must have still been wearing his boots.

That had been a habit that Beth had noticed about Daryl when they were on the road together; the fact that he never chose to wear more comfortable clothes to rest in, the fact that he refused to even remove his boots whilst he slept for a couple of hours. Despite the tall and seemingly strong walls that surrounded Alexandria, it appeared as though Daryl was anything but comfortable living here, and the fact that the older man was still wearing his boots to bed solidified to her the fact that he was uncomfortable.

The bedroom door was unlocked just a few seconds later and it opened with a loud creak that caused Beth to wince ever so slightly. The pretty blonde inadvertedly took a small step backwards and scrunched up her face at the sound. Not because it was a necessarily unpleasant noise, but more so because of the fact that it was much, much louder than she thought that a door should be and also because she knew for a fact that the other people who lived in this house were more than likely going to here the sound of the door opening.

It wasn't as though Beth was really all that fussed about anybody seeing her stood here, but deep down, she knew in her heart that it was something that would no doubt mortify Daryl Dixon. Once she had managed to look past his gruff exterior and his surly attitude, Beth had quickly learned that Daryl was _shy_ and an extremely private person. The last thing that he wanted was for anybody to be nosying around in his business - something that Beth couldn't fault him for at all - and she knew that he would absolutely hate for someone to see her stood here.

Another thing that had crossed her mind recently was the fact that Daryl always seemed to be embarrassed whenever he found himself in her company nowadays - not that he did that often, of course, because he had been avoiding her something terrible since she had arrived in Alexandria.

It was hardly as though Beth was insecure enough to believe that Daryl was simbly embarrassed to be around _her_ in general because deep down, she knew that his behaviour really had very little to do with her at all. It was mostly everything to do with _himself;_ his own insecurities, his own doubt and dark thoughts and general pessimistic attitude.

Beth knew of that all too well by now since she had grown somewhat accustomed to it in the time that it was just the two of them alone. _Your dad... Maybe I could have done something._

It had been difficult, but eventually Daryl had relaxed around her in the end. He had began to let his walls down - only a tiny bit, of course, but he had let them down nonetheless - and it seemed to Beth as though the older man might have actually been almost ready to let her in for good.

Of course, that had all been before she had gone and gotten herself kidnapped, and everything had been whisked away right from her grasp after that.

The kidnapping itself was really mostly her own fault. Of course it had been Daryl who had told her to go out towards the road, but still; she hadn't been looking properly, hadn't been paying much attention... Hadn't noticed the car until it was too late. That was on her, not on him, but there wasn't a shadow of a doubt in Beth's mind that Daryl would always blame himself for what happened to her at the funeral home and then subsequently what happened to her afterwards.

Almost as soon as the bedroom door was halfway opened, Daryl's eyes were straight onto Beth's, dark blue staring directly into a much lighter shade. The way that the hunter's eyes widened ever so slightly had the youngest Greene girl feeling as though this man was actually pleasantly surprised to see her standing there before him, but the assumption didn't necessarily flatter her at all.

Instead, it was the way in which Daryl's dark eyes trailed over her scantily clad appearance and then slowly moved back up her body to find her eyes once again that had Beth's cheeks burning a furious shade of red. The blonde cursed herself inwardly as her heart hammered loudly against her chest in such a way that had Beth confident that Daryl must have been able to see her pulse throbbing in her throat, and all of a sudden her mouth felt all too dry.

Before Beth could even open her mouth to attempt to explain her presence or even just ask Daryl if it would be alright for her to talk to him behind closed doors, the older man was taking a step backwards and opening the door further, silently inviting her into the vicinity of his bedroom. For the briefest of seconds Beth hesitated in the doorway, but she collected herself just as quickly and floated through the threshold of the door, her eyes roaming around the room that she had never stepped foot inside of until this very moment.

The space inside of the room was neat and tidy, and the way that the whole expanse of it was presented gave off the vibe that it had barely ever been touched. There had been a part of the young blonde that had almost expected Daryl's bedroom to remain as such - after all, he had never seemed like the type of man who enjoyed spending time locked inside of a room, and it seemed as though domestic life in Alexandria wasn't going to change that side of him any time soon.

Beth wondered to herself if it would ever change any side of him in the end.

The sound of Daryl's deep voice filling the silence of the room had Beth jumping nervously. The pretty blonde turned quickly on her heel as she inhaled quickly, her eyes widening even more than they already had when she spotted that Daryl had been much closer behind her than she had anticipated that he would be. His movements had been quiet and his footsteps had barely even been audible this time that he walked across the room, and although she hadn't really been concentrating on where Daryl was as she looked over his room, she most definitely had not heard him coming from behind her.

Stepping backwards two steps, Daryl put some more space between the pair of them, seeming to realise that the younger woman really had not expected him to be that close to her. As he backed away from where he had been stood, Beth's shoulders relaxed and her hand instinctively moved so that her palm was resting flat against her chest over where her heart was still hammering violently.

"Everythin' okay?" Daryl repeated his original question, his dark eyes narrowed as he stared straight at her, his expression not giving much away to her at all.

It was obvious that Daryl was confused by her general presence, which was hardly something that Beth could necessarily blame him for considering the fact that the two of them had barely even spoken to each other over the course of the last few weeks, never mind actually spent a decent amount of time alone together.

The only occassion that both of them had really been together at all had been the night that he had checked up on her after finding out that she was going to be a nurse in Alexandria; the night that he had actually seemed to care about her once again, the night that Beth had wanted so badly to reach up and kiss him.

The night that played on repeat in her mind each night that she fell asleep, each time ending differently.

Beth told herself that it was most definitely not her fault that the pair of them had not communicated very much over the last few weeks. It had been Daryl who had been pulling away from her and it had also been Daryl who had been avoiding her at all costs. Every time they were ever in the same enclosed space as one another he would flee the room as quickly as possible and the hunter would always turn away and rush in the opposite direction if he noticed her approaching from afar.

It was hardly as though his odd behaviour and general avoidance of her wasn't going to go unnoticed by the rest of their family. The other people who lived in Alexandria, sure - but the people who had known them both for years now? There was no way this was sliding by them. Still, nobody tried to mention it to Beth and she doubted that anyone tried to mention it to Daryl, either.

A large part of the young blonde was relieved that everyone seemed to be leaving them be about all of this. The last thing either of them needed was for people to start prying too much. It wasn't as though Beth really minded anyone knowing about her feelings towards the older man - she most definitely had nothing at all to be ashamed of, in her own opinion - but it was Daryl who was socially awkward and it was Daryl that was emotionally stunted.

His heart was scarred and torn and broken in ways that nobody fully understood; not Beth, not even Carol or Rick.

And that didn't necessarily mean anything good for her.

When Daryl cocked a curious brow at her, Beth snapped out of her thoughts and cleared her throat a little awkwardly, realising that the pair of them had been staring at each other for probably longer than had been necessary. A question had escaped his lips and Beth hadn't bothered to answer it yet, so she nervously tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and nodded her head up and down rapidly, avoiding eye contact with Daryl for a couple of seconds as she did so.

"Yeah," she stuttered out, placing her hands on her hips and straightening up her back. The blonde swallowed as she looked back up to the older man, her light blue eyes wide as they danced over his features, making sure to take enough time to allow everything about him to sink in.

There had been some days on the road when she had been completely alone and the only thing that kept her going was when she thought of him. Allowed her mind to only focus on an imaginary image of his features; of his face and his hair and his shoulders and his clothes, of his voice telling her what to do and where to turn and where to stop. Perhaps it had been crazy, a sign of her insanity, but Beth had just been so _lonely_ and the one thing that she needed to guide her home had been Daryl.

"Everything's alright," she confirmed, inhaling loudly. "It's just that I," she began and then cut herself off, not really knowing what to say or where to go with any of this. For a while it was quiet once again, and despite the fact that Beth really was lost for words at the moment, she also knew that Daryl would wait for her to speak before he opened his own mouth again.

So Beth decided to be honest.

"I was having trouble sleeping," she admitted, trying her hardest to keep her voice strong and confident, not allowing herself to sound weak or unsure.

Perhaps it worked or perhaps it didn't, but Daryl didn't seem to mind either way. The older man just nodded his head at her once and Beth knew that he would probably understood her inability to sleep better than anyone else inside of these walls. Of course, that wasn't to say that nobody else had seen or done any awful things - Beth knew that they all carried their own demons, all had their own scars - but inside Daryl there was just _more._ Ghosts from the old world, not just ones from the new, and they weighed him down more than anything else.

Their eyes met again from where they were both stood and before Beth could even realise what it was that she was doing, never mind stop herself from doing it, she was padding across the small space towards him so that the two of them were practically standing chest to chest. Without wasting another second, the blonde stood up on her tiptoes and pushed her lips firmly against his, not really giving the hunter much of a choice in the matter.

In general, her movements had been anything but slow and steady and her bold action seemed to have genuinely taken Daryl by surprise for a couple of seconds. Instead of reacting at all, he stood frozen in place with her lips pressing against his, his broad shoulders tense and his body frozen still.

But after just a few more seconds, the older man's mouth was opening against her own and he was kissing her back. Relief flooded through Beth's body and she couldn't help but smile into the kiss, both of her arms moving so that they were wrapped tightly around Daryl's neck. It seemed as though the movement only spurred him on further, his mouth opening into her own and his tongue probing against hers, the kiss all fast and hard and passionate in the best sort of ways.

When they broke away from each other, Beth was relieved to notice that the hunter was panting, too. Her eyes floated up to lock with his and she offered him a soft, shy smile as she tucked some more of her hair behind her ear. It seemed as though Daryl's eyes burned intensly into her own for hours before he leaned forward once again and captured her mouth in a bruising kiss, and Beth couldn't help but let out a squeal in surprise as he did so.

It had been a horrible couple of weeks of Daryl avoiding her as though she had the plague, but now that he was kissing her so passionately and so desperately, there was a part of Beth that thought that this moment had most definitely been well worth the long wait.


	3. Chapter 3

There had been a time - a time that felt as though it could have easily been centuries ago, when in fact it had only been a matter of years - when girls like Beth Greene had been getting prepared to head off for college.

A time when girls like Beth Greene had been debating over all of the places in the United States of America - goodness, the whole world if they really wanted to, if they were brave enough - where they could go to study at.

A time when girls like Beth Greene had spent their free time flicking through college brochures; a time when girls like Beth Greene had been esearching online to see what college was at the top of what league table, a time when girls like Beth Greene had been trying their best to discover what course would suit their interests and their ambitions best.

After much deliberation - because her parents could definitely vouch for her over the fact that she had changed her mind about what to study and where she should actually go to study a lot - Beth Greene had decided to make up her mind on a plan, a plan that she could - and would - actually stick to, not one that she would just discard of tomorrow. Beth had decided that she would go and study teaching (elementary age, of course) with a couple of music modules thrown in along the way so that when the time came for it, she could specialise in that area.

After all, the blonde knew where her strengths and her weaknesses lay. Knew that she was much better with children than she was with adults, knew that she could play her fair share of instruments - including the generally popular options of the piano and the guitar - a lot better than most other people that she knew of, knew that she could also hold a tune pretty well.

It wasn't as though she was at all big headed about anything, either, because girls like Beth Greene were down-to-earth and girls like Beth Greene were anything but overly confident. Instead, Beth received compliments on her singing from both strangers and from friends on almost a daily basis, and those sorts of kind words boosted her self-esteem in ways that nobody else could really understand or appreciate.

Because it was hard being the youngest of three children.

Because it was hard when you had a brother who was off working with Apple as some sort of software developer.

Because it was hard when you had been living in your sister's shadow since the day that you started high school; always been the one that wasn't as pretty, the one with small breasts, not big ones, the one with light blonde hair and not brown, the one with the blue eyes and not hazel. The one that was alright, but wasn't quite Maggie.

So in the end, Beth's mind had been made up, and as far as she was concerned, nothing was going to get in the way of her and her plans.

At almost seventeen years old, Beth had already decided that she would go and study teaching with music at a nearby college and then she would return to Senoia so that she could find a job at a local school - preferably the one that she had attended as a child, just because it seemed like it would be a nice idea - and she could continue to live close by to her parents. That last point was particularly important for her because, bless their souls, her mama and daddy were definitely not getting any younger in age and even at a time when she was supposed to be selfish, Beth just knew that Shawn and Maggie would not want to stick around in this small little town when there much bigger cities out there to explore.

It had been a perfectly good plan that she had thought of - a sound plan, a realistic plan - and as far as Beth was concerned, it was definitely much more sensible than the one she had thought of when she was twelve; an idea that was based on her decision to become a famous singer, so just like Taylor Swift had done, she could head off to Nashville and try to kickstart something, maybe make a bit of a name for herself in the industry.

Both of her parents had seemed to agree with her reasoning, and it wasn't as though there was really much room for debate or criticism in her solidified plan; but both Hershel and Annette did mention to her - several times over, too - that they thought that Beth should just do whatever it was that made her happy. As far as they were both concerned, so long as their youngest daughter was making sure that she was living her passion, living her dream, then they would be more than proud of her, no matter what path it was that she chose.

But life has a funny way of turning things upside down, and Beth had learned all about the ways in which we cannot plan our lives for ourselves.

Well, not when the universe seems to have much bigger and much more different plans for us, at least.

It had been Jimmy who had first put her down about her life plans. Upon hearing the news of it all - she had told him in an excited and proud tone once she had finally made up her mind, once she had finally set herself to this goal - he had scoffed loudly and rolled his eyes in what Beth had pegged as a very childish reaction, even at the time. When she had opened her mouth and asked him why he was reacting in such a rude way, Jimmy certainly hadn't bothered to even attempt to beat around the bush or hold back.

No, he did the opposite of that, in fact. Jimmy straight-up told Beth that he thought that her plan was anything but ambitous. Jimmy had straight up called her simple and told her that her that she was just one of those people that wasn't ever going to go anywhere.

And if she was honest with herself - because girls like Beth Greene rarely ever lied about anything, even to themselves - then Beth would say that Jimmy's offensive words towards her would have most likely broken her heart into pieces had she actually been in love with him the way that everyone else in the world (including him) seemed to believe that she was. And of course the bitter words that Jimmy had spoke regarding her future had irritated her, but they hadn't crushed her fiery spirit and they certainly hadn't shattered the confidence that she had placed in her plans.

And thankfully for Beth, she had been growing tired of Jimmy's company anyway. She had taken his unsupportive attitude as a sign from the universe that she needed to get out as quickly as she could, and the combination of Jimmy's condescending tone and his bored expression had served as the perfect excuse for Beth to throw herself out of their reasonably new relationship.

Little did she know in that moment that the dead would start walking one week later; causing Jimmy to flee from his house to her daddy's in an attempt to find some sort of shelter and false sense of security, causing her to be stuck with his company once again. Maggie in particular had pushed her straight back into Jimmy's arms, telling her that now was a perfect time to 'try again' to make whatever was wrong between them work. And her daddy had then taken it upon himself to constantly guard over the two of them as though they were ever going to get up to anything that they shouldn't.

But it was the very start of the apocalypse, for goodness sake. Did it really matter what happened between her and some boy anymore? Was that really such a big issue nowadays?

There had been more than just a handful of times in those first few months when Beth had been more than certain that her daddy was slowly losing his mind, that he was watching her and Jimmy like a hawk in some sort of poor attempt to convince himself that things in this world were still somewhat normal, as if they could ever be alright again.

The way that he had reacted to the death of his wife and son had only solidified that for her.

But then a wild group of strangers happened to have found themselves upon her daddy's land; hollering at the door of the house about a young boy who had been shot by their farmhand, practically begging her father to help them save his life before it was too late.

And of course he helped them save that young man. Despite his very distant (and on several occasions even cold) attitude towards these people - these men and these women that he didn't know, didn't trust - Hershel Greene was a good man. A good man who would most definitely never turn away people who were searching for a lost child, people who were suffering and people who were struggling.

So her daddy agreed with Rick Grimes that he and his group could stay so long as they left as soon as the boy was nurtured back to full health.

But then the heard had found them.

And life had never been the same again.

It was now - as the hours of the night were passing by in a hurried blur, as Daryl Dixon hovered over her body; his mouth resting on her protruding collar bone, licking and sucking and nipping at all of the explosed flesh around that area - that Beth thought back to Jimmy's words. Remembered how he had stood there in her daddy's barn, how he had looked her straight in her big blue eyes and told her all about how she wasn't going to ever go anywhere fast, how he had told her that herself and her life would always be _simple._

 _Simple._

And there had been a time - a time that felt as though it easily could have been centuries ago, when in fact it had only been a matter of years - when girls like Beth Greene had been insulted by little words such as 'simple'. A time when girls like Beth Greene had taken those sorts of things personally, a time when girls like Beth Greene had tried to prove everyone who ever spoke negatively about them wrong.

So there had been a time when Beth Greene had been more than desperate to prove to Jimmy - and to everybody else who shared his opinion, too - that she was anything but _simple._

But as Daryl Dixon's hands moved from where they had been holding her hips and trailed further south of her body, as his teeth nipped harder at the flesh of her shoulder and her collar bone and as his hand moved so that it was pressed flat against her crotch - putting a teasing amount of pressure onto her already swollen clit - Beth Greene decided that in this moment, everything that she had tried not to be... she suddenly was.

 _Simple._

And as Beth's hips rocked against Daryl's hand in an attempt to do something with the delicious sense of friction that she felt against her heat, she decided that if this was what simplicity was - and Beth really, really thought that was a perfect definition of _this,_ this thing that had been bubbling between the pair of them for weeks and for months and possibly even _years_ \- then she was more than accepting of it.

In fact, she was _proud_ of it. Beth was _ecstatic_ with it.

Especially if she could be simple with Daryl Dixon.

But then, as he tugged down on her small pyjama shorts and lowered his head so that he was settled in between her legs, Beth found that she couldn't really form much coherent thought due to the sudden surprise of his bold movements. And when his tongue darted out of his mouth and began to lap at her clit, Beth threw her head back against the firm pillows of his bed and forgot every single thing that she had been thinking previously.

Even that one little word didn't echo in her mind - not anymore, not now that Daryl was here, taking her to another place; a happier place, one where the pair of them could forget everything and everyone else and just focus on one another. A place where nothing was pain and everything was pleasure. A place that was filled with bliss and happiness and easiness.

A place that was _simple._

Not that Beth could remember that word, though.

Not right now, at least.

In that moment, she couldn't even remember her own name.

* * *

There wasn't a clock for her to look over at inside the expanse of Daryl's sparsely decorated bedroom, but Beth knew as soon as she jumped awake in bed (most of her dreams still tended to be violent and graphic - they had been like that for a while, now - and it was anything but rare for her to wake up so suddenly) that it was still quite early on, still in the first few hours of the morning.

If she had to take a wild guess as to what the exact time was, then she would have probably pegged it as sometime between two and three a.m. That was mostly because of the fact that in the space of the small and simple room that had been reserved for Daryl, it was completely and utterly black. Beth could barely even see the outline of the man who was sleeping soundly beside her, completely unaware of the fact that she was suddenly just awake, and not even any birds could be heard singing from outside.

Those birds usually made their appearance around four or five o'clock, and Beth knew that because those birds particularly seemed to enjoy singing directly in front of her own bedroom window.

Every. Single. Morning.

Between the both of their bodies on the double bed (that had a particularly stiff mattress that made Beth incredibly suspicious in regards to whether or not Daryl actually ever bothered to even sleep in here), there was a small amount of room. It wasn't anywhere near enough space to cause Beth to think that Daryl had purposely been trying to put some sort of distance between them so that he could get as far away from her body as he possibly could whilst she slept, but it was still definitely enough room to make her probe her mind and wonder about whether or not Daryl actually felt comfortable with her there, sleeping beside him.

Trying her hardest not to over-thing something so small and more than likely meaningless, Beth let out a gentle breath and blinked her eyes open and closed several times over. She didn't bother to focus on anything in particular and instead waited patiently for her heart beat to slow down from where it had been galloping in her chest.

After a few more seconds of slowed breaths, the young woman relaxed her upper body and slowly moved backwards so that she was no longer resting on her elbows and was instead lay with her back flat against the bed, staring directly up at the dark ceiling of Daryl's bedroom.

Trying her best not to over-thing anything. Especially not something so small and more than likely insignificant.

Something like the distance that was in between the pair of them in that very moment.

Truth be told, it could have been minutes or it could have been hours that passed by whilst Beth continued to lay flat on her back, and the blonde would have most definitely not have even realised just how long had one by as she blinked up at the ceiling. All that she knew was that her eyelids had began to grow heavy what felt like a reasonable amount of time ago, and they had began to droop a lot more than usual, too.

Yet she seemed to find it absolutely impossible to fall asleep.

Perhaps it was the unfamiliar space of Daryl's bedroom or perhaps it was the fact that her buzzing mind would not shut up; but either way, the blonde could not seem to be able to drift off back to sleep once again.

It was only when Daryl stirred from his place beside her on the bed that Beth even turned her head to look in his direction. Up until that point, she had only been staring at the ceiling of the room, not even bothering to move even a single muscle of her body.

By now, there was a small amount of light creeping into the bedroom - a small signal to Beth about how much time had passed whilst she had just been staring up from where she lay in the bed - and she could make out a lot more of Daryl's features than she had been able to before. Before, when it was dark; when the distance between them had seemed much, much greater, when she had been trying her best not to feel his hot breath as it moved against the creamy skin of her exposed shoulder.

Just a short few seconds later, Daryl was blinking open his eyes, and Beth could even make out the deep shade of blue that they were - even when he had only just woken up.

Sometimes, Beth forgot just how intense Daryl Dixon's eyes could be.

Not sure of what to say to him as he stared over at her - because really, what was she supposed to say? _'Hey, how are you?'_ or _'Feeling any better now?'_ \- Beth just offered him a small, weak closed-lipped smile. It was surprising to actually see him return the gesture (maybe he was just really tired, or maybe having sex with her had actually been as good for him as it had been for her) just before his eyes drifted to a close once again.

And when his eyelids drooped shut - and stayed shut for a good few seconds - Beth released a breath that she didn't even realise she had been holding, her heart throbbing against her chest in a manic rhythm all over again.

But at least this was a better feeling than before. Because Beth would most definitely rather have her heart beating far too fast because of Daryl Dixon's eyes on hers rather than have it beating so fast because a horrific nightmare where she relived the deaths of her loved ones; of her brother, of her mama, of her daddy.

And the last one always hit her the hardest, always broke her the most.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was _murdered_. Maybe that somehow made it even worse.

Her mind had drifted off once again - drifted off into more morbid and miserable territory - and Beth had quickly became distracted by her thoughts, truly lost in a world of her own. Because of it, she didn't even realise that Daryl was stirring beside her once again.

Well, not until his arm had wound itself over and around her stomach and his hand had grabbed at the flesh of her hip. And in one swift - and most definitely effortless - motion, the hunter was flipping her body onto its side and pulling her much, much closer towards him.

It meant that their bare skin was merged into one as Beth's back pressed firmly against the muscles of his broad chest. Daryl's arm locked tightly into place around her stomach and his grip on her hip never loosened, either, and Beth's light blue eyes were still wide in surprise and her breath was caught in her throat as a result of his sudden and unexpected movement.

She was still very much caught off guard about just how _tightly_ Daryl was holding her to him.

And when Daryl moved impossibly closer to her and buried his face in her hair, there was a part of Beth that wanted to squeal and to laugh happily at his affectionate behaviour. After all of these weeks where all that he had offered to her were long, lingering looks with no words to explain how it was that he felt about everything - how it was that he felt about _her -_ this suddenly felt very much like a victory.

Knowing that Daryl was probably still half asleep and more than likely completely unaware of what he was doing in that moment had her biting down on her lower lip in an atttempt to hold back an celebratory noises that she might make as he nuzzled the back of her head with his nose before his movements stilled once again.

But no matter how hard she tried to, Beth Greene could not hold back the grin that immediately graced her features; and for the first time in the last few hours, she managed to find sleep once more.


End file.
